Nannywatch: Fremont
Evidently, the fact that drunk people are sometimes loud is news to certain residents in Fremont, so the neighborhood has formed a task force to decide what to do about all of the people in the streets after last call [P-I]. What the task force has come up with is “a nightlife license, issued only if the applicant agrees to a series of “good neighbor” conditions regarding residents.” No one has yet figured out who would have to get the license or what its conditions would be, probably because it seems a bit nonsensical to make a bar owner responsible for everyone that wanders out the door.
I’m all for bars having good relationships with the people who live nearby, because having both nightlife and a high density of residents is part of what makes a city a city. But if you decide to live near a bar, shouldn’t you expect a certain amount of noise to go along with that?
My favorite idea is to get rid of the 2 a.m. cutoff for selling liquor, but last call is set by the liquor board, and they’re a bunch of grumps. (Maybe it’s me that’s the grump–the fact that I can’t buy anything other than beer and wine at the grocery store makes me cranky.) Anyway, right now all the city can really do is get more bar owners to put up signs reminding their patrons to be quiet when they leave. Maybe they can borrow some from my middle school’s library; they had great signs of lips with a hushing finger in front.
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In many cases, however, a bar/bars moved in after people had purchased residences, or a restaurant began sponsoring club-like activities. The best answer, as always, is for patrons (I’m often enough one of then) to observe basic courtesies and act in a civilized manner. That covers you and me - let’s educate all the others!
It’s all just another excuse to bring up the “Good Neighbor” contracts that the city is trying to bully bars into signing that basically allows the city to shut down whoever they are without even bothering with the pretense of a legal case that they will later lose. (Oscars II, anyone?) There are existing laws against being a public nuisance, why can’t the neighborhood groups simply lobby for better policing with the laws that currently exist?
As a commentor from Pioneer Square pointed out in the discussion of this issue over at the P-I’s boards, football and baseball games consistently create havoc but you don’t see anyone trying to make the Seahawks sign a Good Neighbor contract.